Before defending Class 4A state champion Rochester plays its first Central State Eight Conference football game, the Rockets will have two massive tests to open the 2024 season.
The Illinois High School Association released the 2024 football schedules last week.
Rochester, which went 14-0 and beat Burbank St. Laurence 59-38 last November at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium to win its ninth state football championship, will open against Chicago Simeon at Gately Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m.
Simeon went 5-5 last year and qualified for the Class 6A playoffs, the 22nd-straight time the Wolverines have advanced to the Illinois High School Association postseason.
That may not be the easiest hurdle facing the Rockets to start the season. Rochester will host St. Louis Cardinal Ritter Prep at Rocket Booster Stadium on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. The Lions went 14-0 and captured the Missouri Class 5 state title in 2023.
Rochester coach Derek Leonard said his team won't mirror the defending state champions due to a lot of graduation losses, but he will know a lot about his team pretty quickly.
"Going to Chicago and then playing a top-three team in Missouri, we're going to find out a lot," Leonard said. "We're a young team, so we've got to grow up real fast. It's a tough schedule; we didn't want an easy one."
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Leonard added the Rockets had a difficult task filling the out-of-conference portion of its schedule.
"We had a really rough time finding games, I mean a really rough time," Leonard said. "I don't think everyone else had a rough time, but we did. Tough, tough, tough. I may have been (picky) at first, but I became un-picky because I realized — I think we were the last team (in the CS8) to find people. I had to take what was given. Either a lot of people didn't want to play us, or a lot of factors go into things. It wasn't near as easy as I thought it was going to be."
Another CS8 power, Sacred Heart-Griffin, opens its season on Friday, Aug. 30 at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis. The game, which will be played at the W. Michael Ross ‘66 Stadium, pits the six-time Illinois state champion Cyclones against the three-time Missouri champion Cadets. CBC went 11-3 and lost in the Missouri Class 6 state title game, 38-7, to Liberty North a season ago.
With the new two divisions of six teams each in the Central State Eight this season, opportunities for big-time nonconference matchups are available in the first two weeks. Chatham Glenwood will also take advantage of that. The Titans host Edwardsville in Week 1. The Tigers went 10-2 last season and made the quarterfinals of the Class 8A playoffs. Glenwood went 8-4 and advanced to the 6A quarters.
Leonard said he'll miss the old format of playing every CS8 opponent.
"I like playing everybody, I like playing Lanphier," he said. "That's how I was, so that's what I'm used to."
The Sangamo Conference opens Week 1 with a pair of games featuring annual state title game hopefuls. Auburn will travel to Williamsville while Maroa-Forsyth heads to Menard County to face Class 2A runner-up Athens. Both games are at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30.
The South Central Conference has a rivalry game in Week 2 when Carlinville travels to Christian County to face Pana.
The CS8 season kicks off with an in-city matchup in Week 3 when Lanphier hosts Springfield High at Memorial Stadium. Also in Week 3, Pana heads to Piasa Southwestern as the Panthers will face its third-straight playoff qualifier from 2023 (Pana opens at Vandalia in Week 1). Another rivalry game takes place on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. when Illinois 104 combatants Kincaid South Fork and Pawnee meet in an Illinois 8-Man Football Association contest in Pawnee.
Week 4 has plenty of big games from which to choose. In the CS8, Rochester travels to Chatham Glenwood in a game that will have big implications in the East Division race. SHG travels to CS8 newcomer Quincy Notre Dame in a West Division heated contest of Catholic schools. The Sangamo has a marquee match when Stanford Olympia heads to Athens while Mount Zion will host archrival Taylorville as the Apollo Conference begins its schedule. On Saturday, Sept. 20, Beardstown journeys to Freesen Field in Jacksonville to meet Routt in a Western Illinois Valley Conference North divisional game at noon.
The Sangamo steals the spotlight in Week 5 when Athens heads to Auburn and Olympia goes into hostile territory to play Williamsville. Pana must face its fourth playoff team from 2023 when the Panthers go to Greenville.
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Week 6 could be the difference in a playoff berth between Jacksonville and Springfield High in this CS8 West divisional game at Memorial Stadium. One of the biggest Sangamo games of the season will be Williamsville’s road trip to Athens. And in the battle for Macoupin County, North Mac heads to Carlinville. North Mac head coach Robbi Howard will be trying to get the Panthers back into the playoffs after a missed season in 2023. On Saturday, Oct. 5, Routt will host Camp Point Central at 1 p.m. in another key WIVC West tilt.
Springfield’s biggest in-city football rivalries highlight Week 7. SHG heads to the renovated Memorial Stadium to take on Springfield High on Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday, Southeast will host Lanphier at 1 p.m.
SHG’s Week 7 begins a string of much-anticipated games for the Cyclones to end the regular season. In Week 8, SHG hosts the CS8’s oldest rivalry against Chatham Glenwood then finishes up with a road game at Rochester. While SHG and Rochester no longer can boast being the Leonard Bowl — a game pitting former SHG coach Ken Leonard against his son Derek — it still has as much glitz and glamor as any game in the state.
The Sangamo also has a couple of games that should impact the postseason to finish the season. In Week 8, Maroa-Forsyth travels to Williamsville and in Week 9, Olympia is on the road against Auburn.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com , Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Where to be this season: CS8 heavyweights open 2024 football season with quality competition
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